Improvement in machines for grinding and polishing stone



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H. HINGE. Machines for Grinding and Polishing Stone, 8L6. I N0.i57,759.Patented Dec.i5,'1874.

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w up auras. Machines for Grinding and PolishingSjtuni-a, 8w.

Patented Dec. 15, 1874.

THE GRAPHIC CO. Fbi DIO-LITHJS-Z PARK PLACEN.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIGE.

HUGH curse, on ALLEGHENY, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR GRINDING AND POLISHING STONE. 8L0.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 157,759, dated December15, 1874; application filed February 10, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HUGH QUIGG, of Allegheny, in the county of Alleghenyand State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement inMachine for Stenciling, Grinding, and Polishing Marble, Glass, and otherSurfaces; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure is aside elevation, partly in section, of my improved machine. Fig. 2 is aplan view, and Fig. 3 is a front elevation, of the same. Fig. 4 is asectional View throughm m, Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a vertical section of thedevice for carrying the operating-tool and Figs. 6 and 7 are,respectively, sectional views of the grinding and polishing tools.

Like letters of reference indicate like parts in each.

My invention relates to the construction of a machine for grinding andpolishing marble and other surfaces, and for the purpose of stencilingglass; and it consists, first, of a rotating stem for carrying theoperating-tool, sustained by an arm, movable horizontally in a hinged orswinging slide, so that the tool may be directed to any part of thepolishingbench; second, in the mechanism by which the stem-is rotated,such mechanism being self-adjusting, so as to adapt itself to theconstantly changed position of the rotating stem; third, in theconstruction of the grinding and polishing tools; and fourth, in thehollow stem, by which the requisite moisture is prop erly applied in theoperations of grinding and polishing. 7

To enable others skilled in the art to make a and use my invention, Iwill describe its conthe outer end of its shaft 0 The outer edge of thetable I) is furnished with a rack, d, the notches d of which are placedat certain determinate distances apart. This rack is designed to operatein connection with the spring-tongue 01 to regulate and limit themovement of the table, and to act as a stop to hold it stationary at anydesired point. Supported upon the cross-ties a is a powershaft, 6,.carrying a band-wheel, c which,.by means of the band 6 is connected withthe band-wheel f on the upright shaft f. The shaft f is supported in itsvertical position by the standard g, which is secured by the braces g tothe frame a. On the upper end of the shaft f is a band-wheel, f whichbears upon the collar 9 and thereby sustains the weight of the shaftf.The shaft f is held in line by the collars and 9 through which itpasses. On the vertical shaft f, between the collars g and 9 is asleeve, It, made loose, so that it may turn thereon, which supports aslide or sheath, h. In the slide h is a sliding arm, 1', which may bemoved back and forth in the slide at pleasure. At the forward end of thearm t' is a stem, m, the upper end of which is provided with aband-wheel, m and the lower end of which is threaded, as at m This stemextends down below the arm 2', and is designed to carry the grinding orpolishing tool. It is rotated by means of a belt, a, from the bandwheelf The belt 73 is extended around the friction-wheels 71 h and t andthence to the wheel m so as to run" parallel with the arm i, and topermit the arm t to be moved back and forth without interrupting theoperation of the belt n, the wheels 6 and m keeping the belt n at fullrunning tension, whatever may be the position of the arm 13. At the rearend of the arm z there is a slot, *9, Fig. 4, through which the stem iwhich carries the frictionavheel 6 extends down into the center orhollow part of the arm 7:. At this point the stem 73 connects with asecond stem, 1 which extends out beyond the end of the arm *5, and isthreaded at its outer extremity, so as to accommodate the nut i Theobject of this device is to tighten or loosen the belt a at pleasure. Byscrewing the nut '6 up on the stem 6 it encounters the end of the stemz, and being stopped in its own advance draws the stem 43 throughitself, and thereby causes the belt n to be drawn tight. By reversingthe motion of the nut the belt is loosened. In order to cover the slot 6and to hold the stem i in a position to move easily, I secure it to aslide or sleeve, i The arm 6 has a handle, f, at its front end, by meansof which the operator is enabled to move the arm so as to bring thepolishing or fiinbding tool to any desired part of the ta- By means ofthe slide h the arm may be moved forward or back across the table, and,or

by means of the loose sleeve h, by which it is hung or pivoted to thevertical shaft f, it may be swung around so as to reach all parts of thetable. Thus the arm '6 is perfectly adjustable, and moves with so littlefriction that the operator may move the tool to any desired point withbut little effort.

The stem m is supported by the collar 1, which rests upon the upper endof the guide 2, and, by means of the spiral spring 3, set between thelower end of the guide 2 and the collar 4, holds the tool against thesurface to be operated upon by a firm and equal pressure. Extendingforward from the guide 2 is a cam-yoke, 5, which operates in connectionwith the cam 6, hung in the bearing 7,'and worked by the crank 8, toraise or depress the stem m. The stem m, by this device, may be raisedso as to permit the operating-tool to be swung round to any part of thetable I), clear of the surface which is being operated upon; or it maybe depressed so as to cause the operating-tool to be pressed againstthe' surface operated upon. This is frequently necessary where hard orheavy grinding is done. The stem m is made hollow, for the purpose ofsupplying water to the grinding-head in the operation of grinding, andliquid acid to the polishing-tool in the operation of polish mg.

The water or acid may be supplied to the hollow stem m by means of aflexible tube, leading from a suitable tank or reservoir to the upperend of the stem. However, as the supply of liquid which is necessary iscomparativelysmall, I prefer to place a small vessel containing suchliquid upon the bracket 9, which sustains the stem m, so that, by meansof a suitable opening in it, the liquid shall drip therefrom into thehollow stem.

When used for grinding marble and other like surfaces, I make use of atool or head, such as is shown in Fig. 6, which is composed of aninternally-threaded ring or flange, r; a disk, r which is threadedaround its outer I edge, so that it will screw into the shell 4", and

I grease the inside of the shell, so as to prevent the cement fromadhering to the screwhead, and place a core, likewise greased, in thecenter to form the opening r Then I take the pounded or fragmentarystone, mix it with plaster-of-paris and water or other suitable cement,and fill the shell with the mixture. When it has set, which is generallyin a few minutes, I withdraw the center core, and grind the lowersurface of the filling smooth, and it is ready for use.

When the filling wears off to the edge of the flange 1", I unscrew itfrom the stem m, take hold of the filling r and disk 0" by my thumb andfinger, and with the other hand screw up the ring 4 until the filling ragain projects below the edge of the ring the required distance.

The grease upon the screw-threads prevents the filling r from adheringto the shell, and causes it to unscrew easily.

The under face of the disk 0 is roughened, or provided with projectionsr so that the filling shall adhere to it. This is necessary to theperfect operation of the grinding-head. The object of the center openingr is twofold: First, to destroy what is known as the deadpoint, viz.,the center point of the rotating head, for if this was not done the headwould grind unevenly and would not travel over the surface of the stone;second, to supply water to the center of the grinding-head from thehollow stem m. The water must be supplied to the head from the inside tosecure its perfect operation. This head, on the practicallyoperatingmachine which I now have in use, runs at a speed of fifteen hundredrevolutions per minute, and if water is supplied from the outside aloneit throws it aside and becomes very highly heated, and has a tendency toburn and spoil the marble. When water is supplied through the opening rthe surface of the marble under the rotating head is always wet and thehead is kept cool. The

brush which is used in the operation of stenciling glass, and the othertools which may be used in the various operations of this machine, whenin use, are screwed or otherwise secured to the rotating stem m.

111 the operation of stenciling glass the color is first laid on theplate or pane of glass regularly by passing a brush back and forth overits surface. Then a sheet of brass, having a design or pattern, is laidon the painted surface of the glass. The operator then, by

means of a dry bush, scrubs out or rubs off.

the paint or coloring matter which is exposed through the open parts ofthe pattern. After this the glass is removed to a furnace and thecolored pattern, which has been formed upon it, is burnt in.

The operation of scrubbing out the pattern is necessarily a slow onewhen done by hand, a good operator only scrubbing out about two hundredfeet per day.

On the inner side of the frame a I place a bracket, 8, to which I hingea frame, 8, which extends at right angles across the table 12.

This frame is meant to carry a stencil-plate or pattern, t. In place ofthe grinding-tool a", I put a brush, a, on the rotating stem m. A plateof glass already prepared is placed on the table I), which is moved upso as to bring the plate under the pattern t. The brush a is then passedover the surface of the pattern once or twice, and the coloring matteris brushed off the exposed parts ofthe glass almost instantaneously. Theplate, if a wide one, is moved up until the edge of the finished patternon the glass just touches the edge of the pattern of the stencil-platet. The operation is then repeated again and again until the whole platehas passed, when it will be seen that one continuous pattern has beenformed on the glass. The stops on the rack (Z are so arranged as to movethe table I) just the width of the pattern, so that the pattern shall berepeated on the glass with mechanical exactness. By the use of thismachine, thebrush u revolving at the rate of about fourteen hundredtimes per minute, Ihave frequently stenciled eight hundred feet of glassin one day. This gain is not greater than that made in grinding andpolishing stone and marble on this machine over the old hand method, andsuch gain is not attended by any deterioration in the quality of thework, but on the other hand by a gain almost commensurate with the gainin quantity. 1

In the operation of polishing marble the old method has been to coverthe surface of the slab with dry acid and then wet the same with liquidacid. The operator then rubs or scours the surface with cloths until therequisite polish has been attained. This operation is, like the othersspoken of in this specification, very slow and laborious. In addition tothis the polished slab is liable to be fullof scratches and other likedefects, which are produced by the direct forward and back scrubbingmotion necessarily practiced by the workmam This motion causes any roughplace in the polishing-cloth to travel over the same course many times,so that a groove or scratch is worn thereby.

The tool I make use of in the operation of polishing in my machine isshown in Fig. 7. This tool or head is in many respects similar to thehead r. It consists of an internally-threaded ring or shell, '1),similar to the shell 1", a disk, v, threaded around its outer edge sothat it will screw into the shell 11, and tapped and threaded in itscenter so that it will screw onto the threaded end m of the stem m,similar to the disk 0. In connection with this the disk 12 has arigidlyfa-stened hollow cone-shaped stem or core, Q72, extending down tothe lower edge of the shell 11. The disk '19, with its stem '0 isunscrewed from the shell '17, and the stem '0 is tightly wrapped withcloth suitable for polishin g purposes. When wrapped sufficiently tofill the shell 1:, the disk 12 is screwed into the shell 11, so as toallow the lower edge of sired distance from its lower edge.

the wrapped-cloth filling to project the de- When this tool is used, theliquid acid is supplied through the hollow stem m, in the same manner aswater, as hereinbefore stated, is supplied to the grinding-tool r, tothe hollow stem c and by it to the surface of the marble in the centerof the polishin g-cloth. This polishingtool rotating over the surface ofthe marble with immense rapidity, subjecting no one portion to thecontinued. action of any one portion of the polishing-cloth, obviatesthe danger of producing scratches or defects in the manner above stated,and gives a polish of much greater brilliancy and perfection than canpossibly be obtained by the old method.

The operative power is applied to the power-shaft e, which, by means ofthe band-wheel a, band 0 wheel f shaft f, wheel f and band it rotatesthe stem m.

The slab of marble to be ground is placed on the table I), and theoperator, guiding the tool 1", causes it to grind off the rough surfaceof the slab. For the sake of regularity, I generally grind the slab in".the line of the movement of the sliding arm, when at right angles withthe table 2), beginning at one end and advancing the slab by a regularmovement of the table under the tool, until the other end is reached.

By the use of this machine I am enabled to give a more even surface tothe slab than is possible to do by hand, and to effect avery greatsaving in time and labor.

The operation of the machine in polishing and in stenciling has beenfully mentioned herein.

Other known and suitable mechanical devices for transmitting power torotate the stem m may be used to produce this result.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

1. The rotating stem m, carried by and in combination with the arm i,having a forwardand-back motion in the slide h, and a swinging motion onthe hinge h, so that the tool may be moved freely to all parts of thetable, substantially as described.

2. The rotating stem m, for carrying the operating-tool, provided with acenter opening for conducting water or other liquid to the center of therotating tool, substantially as and for the purposes described.

3. The cam 6, operated by a crank, 8, in combination with the cam-yoke5, for raising or depressing the rotating stem m, substantially asdescribed.

4. The adjustable freely-moving arm 73, susceptible of a straight motionby means of the slide or sheath h, and the reciprocating pulleys orfriction-wheels h h i m, by which the belt a is adjusted to the positionof the arm, and of a circular or swinging motion by means of the sleeveh, by which the sheath h is hung on the shaft f, substantially as andfor the purposes described.

5. The slot 6 stems 2' and i, and nut F, in 8. The polishing-toolconsisting of the incombination With the arm i, to tighten orloosternally threaded shell 1;, the tapped and en the belt-n,substantially as hereinbefore dethreaded disk 22 provided with adownwardscribed. extending hollow cone-shaped stem, 2;, and

6. The pattern-frames,secured in the bracka filling of cloth or otherlike suitable polet 8, in combination with the movable table ishingmaterial, substantially as described.

12, substantially as and for the purposes de- In testimony whereof I,the said HUGH scribed. QUIGG, have hereunto set my hand.

7. The grinding-tool, consisting of the inv HUGH QUIGG.ternally-threaded flange 1", the tapped and Witnesses: threaded disk Tand a hollow adjustable fill- W. N. PAXTON,

ing, 1, substantially as described. THOS. B. KERR.

